Yes, there are no nasties in our products – they are free from: parabens, petrochemicals, propylene glycol, mineral oils, harsh foaming agents, SLS/SLES, silicone, phthalates, triclosan, methylisothiazolinone (MI), EDTA, DEA, TEA or PEGs.

Pure Beginnings products are accredited by the Vegan Society as well as Beauty Without Cruelty South Africa. This means that they are free from any animal products*, and the ingredients used as well as the products are not tested on animals.

*This excludes the insect repellent stick which contains beeswax.

Pure Beginnings uses several wild harvested ingredients from Southern Africa. These ingredients are fairly traded and sustainably sourced through community initiatives which helps provide much needed income for these communities. These initiatives also assist with biodiversity preservation as the communities see the financial benefit of the indigenous plant species and protect them instead of clearing bush to plant often unproductive crops.

Palm oil is used in some of the vegetable oil ingredients used in our products such as Glycerin or Lauryl Glucoside. All palm oil used in these ingredients is certified as responsibly sourced with RSPO certification. RSPO is a global standard for sustainable palm oil.

We use easily recyclable packaging material wherever possible, such as HDPE and PP plastic. Look out for the recyclable logo on the packaging.

Pure Beginnings products rapidly biodegrade in water and therefore will not pollute water courses. We also do not use microbeads in any of our products. Our sunscreen does not contain ingredients such as oxybenzone that cause coral bleaching.

Legislation requires that all ingredients be given their Latin, INCI name (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients). The ingredient glossary on this website lists all ingredients that we use and gives their common names and sources. Some ingredients do sound unnatural even though they are from natural origin. For example: Decyl Glucoside derived from corn and coconut.

The shelf life of our products ranges from 18 to 36 months depending on the product. The expiry date of the product is listed on the product next to the batch code.

Natural ingredients are not standardised and uniformly mass-produced the way synthetic ones can be. Plant ingredients are harvested from different farms at different times of the year, and experience differing climatic conditions. Although every effort is made to standardise the scent and texture of a product, natural ingredients can cause a product to look, smell, or feel different.

Pure Beginnings does not use any synthetic fragrances and the only scents are from essential oils. The term fragrance/parfum/perfume in a product does not indicate to the consumer whether the ingredients are natural or synthetic. A synthetic fragrance may contain as many as 200 different synthetic chemicals – these will include benzene derivatives, phthalates and other know endocrine disruptors. However, synthetic fragrances that are approved for use in certified organic products have been certified as safe as they do not contain these harmful chemicals. 

There has been a great deal of misleading advice in the media regarding the dangers of using essential oils during pregnancy. Essential oils diluted at the normal levels of between 2 and 5% in products designed for topical application have never been shown to have any adverse effect whatsoever during pregnancy. All Pure Beginnings products that contain essential oils use them at concentrations of less than 1%. If we felt that a certain product was not suitable for use during pregnancy, we would state it on the labelling under cautions.

As the world becomes more competitive, and companies chase bigger margins to become more profitable, they continually look for cheaper alternatives to the ingredients they currently use. This action of placing profit margin ahead of product safety has resulted in millions of cheap personal care products on the market that do not put the health and safety of their customer at the forefront of their business. Pure Beginnings does not adopt this business philosophy.

Organic products do not use cheap petrochemical ingredients, instead they use natural vegetable oils as a base for their products which are much more expensive. Organic surfactants such as Decyl Glucoside are naturally derived and more expensive in comparison to cheaply produced conventional surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulphate. The farming methods used to produce organic ingredients that are guaranteed free of chemical residues from pesticides and insecticides are much more expensive than those from conventional farming methods – this has an impact on the price of organic ingredients.

Organic Baby Products – Baby City, Dis-Chem, Woolworths Food Stores (selected products), Wellness Warehouse, Takealot, Faithful-to-Nature & selected independent health and baby stores.

Organic Kids products – Baby City, Dis-Chem, Wellness Warehouse, Takealot, Faithful-to-Nature & selected independent health and baby stores.

Organic Care Products – Dis-Chem (Deodorants only), Wellness Warehouse, Faithful-to-Nature & selected independent health stores.

Visit our store locator to find your nearest store.

Our Pure Beginnings Wet Wipes are biodegradable but not flushable. We do not recommend flushing them, or any other wipe as this may cause future sewerage blockages. Our wipes will biodegrade overtime as they are made from 100% plant fibre and do not contain plastic like conventional wipes. Toilet paper is flushable as it breaks down quickly, almost instantly when in contact with water, allowing it to pass easily through sewerage systems without causing any blockages. (Unfortunately, a lot of wipes are irresponsibly labelled ‘flushable’ when they are actually not!)

Because our wipes are made of 100% natural plant fibres they tend to “stick” to one another and this may cause more than one wipe to come out at a time. The reason why conventional wipes come out one at a time is that they contain plastic and the plastic in the wipes makes it possible for the wipes to “slide/glide” off one another so they can come out one by one. We do hope that this will be seen as one of the small sacrifices worth making in order to have a 100% biodegradable organic wipe.